Date
by Lelo07
Summary: Kensi and Deeks spend some time together after work. Densi story, post 5x02. Rated T for some use of mild language.


Kensi and Deeks had just arrived back from their lunch run. They were enjoying some takeout on the couch of the mission. The food truck this week was a hamburger and fry vendor.

"Hey!" Kensi shouted as Deeks stole one of her fries.

"What?" Deeks said, muffled by the food in his mouth.

"Stop it. You already ate your own."

"So, I'm still hungry."

"Maybe you should have ordered more food then."

"Please?" He gave her his best puppy dog face, but it wasn't cutting it today. Things had still been rather tense since his return to NCIS. He wasn't sure what had changed. She'd been perfectly normal when she came to his door with their favorite food and the week old cronut. It seemed like everything was back to normal there for the few minutes before he fell asleep, but when he woke up, only a few hours later, she was watching television and would barely make eye contact. Deeks decided to leave her alone; maybe she'd stop acting this way eventually.

"Okay, sorry, do you want a coke? I have a couple in the fridge."

"Uhm, sure." Kensi said, unsure of what was up with him. He'd been a little off since his return; she just blamed it on the traumatic experience. Now she was wondering what else was wrong. 

He walked back in and handed it to her.

"Thanks."

"No problem"

Just then, an ear piercing whistle interrupted them.

"Guys, we're all free until Monday, Hetty had to leave and granted us all some vacation time." Eric said as he and Nell descended the steps.

"Hey, five day weekend! No complaints from me!" Callen said as he picked up his bag and led the group as they all headed to the parking lot.

"Hey, Kens, want to, um, maybe do something?" Deeks wanted to smack himself, why was he so nervous about asking her to hang out? They do it all the time. Well, that was before he kind of told her how he felt about her up on that ridge, which she has yet to get back to him about.

"Sure, what do you want to do?" Kensi asked, slightly amused as his flustering, but not wanting to point it out and embarrass him.

"Beach? I mean, if you want to. We could just hang out, or I could give you another surf lesson… on second thought, the waves weren't that great this morning and…"

"Deeks! Stop, yes the beach sounds great, maybe we could just go hang out near the pier or something. I don't really feel like surfing any away." She smiled sweetly at him.

"Alright then, it's a date. I'll pick you up in an hour." Deeks said getting into his car.

"Okay, but it's definitely not a date." Kensi said giving him a pointed look.

"Whatever you say, princess." Deeks replied giving her his trademark smile.

She rolled her eyes as she shut her door and then drove away to go home. She pulled up to her apartment about fifteen minutes later; there wasn't much traffic at this time in the day. She hurried inside to get ready. She quickly showered and then threw on a robe while she did her hair and makeup. She decided to just straighten her hair, since it was wet and she didn't feel like drying it then taming the curls. Half an hour later, she was finished with her hair and heard a knock at the door.

"Shit!" she quietly exclaimed as she ran from her bathroom to answer the door. She opened it to find her partner looking quite nice. He was donning a bright turquoise polo with khaki shorts and a pair of sandals. Void of his plaid shirt, he looked different, in a good way.

"Hey, can you give me ten minutes?" She asked as she opened the door further to let him in.

"Nope, I said one hour. You're going dressed in that." He teased as he sat on her couch.

She laughed as she headed back to her room to change into something. She was glad she'd seen what he was wearing first, as she had no clue where they'd end up tonight. She decided to wear a dress she'd purchased on a recent outing with Nell. It was a purple strapless dress that ended at about fingertip length, and had a wide lavender band under the bust line with a two inch teal band covering most of it that tied in the back. It had a sweetheart neckline and was softer than most of her t-shirts, so she'd be comfortable but still look nice. She grabbed her teal sandals out of her closet and then moved back to her bathroom to put on some makeup.

Usually she didn't wear much, but she decided to try a little harder for their little outing. She didn't want to put too much thought behind why she wanted to look nice, because she wasn't ready to admit anything yet; not even to herself.

Walking out of the bathroom, she found Deeks still sitting on her couch, which was now clutter free. She'd been keeping her place cleaner since his abduction. She'd put her nervous energy from the weeks of not seeing him to good use by cleaning her entire apartment and it'd stayed that way ever since.

Deeks stood up from the couch as she walked into the room. "Wow, you look uhhh… well, beautiful." His eyes locked on hers as he said the last word, causing her to blush. "I didn't know you even wore dresses."

"I don't usually; Nell made me buy this a few weeks ago when she dragged me to the mall." Kensi said as she walked to her door, with Deeks close behind.

They carried on light conversation until their arrival several miles from the pier. . "Hey, want to go for a little walk, there's a place I want to take you."

"Okay." Kensi said, slightly unsure of his idea, she thought they were going to the pier, but they weren't really even close.

She walked with him away from the main beach area and up a hill; from there they had to go up a steeper incline. "Are you okay walking up here in those shoes? It gets a little rocky ahead." Deeks warned.

"I'll be fine, thanks." Kensi said smiling at his concern. But, not more than a minute later, she slipped. Deeks' reflexes were thankfully very quick, and he caught her by the waist before she went down, as she'd been a step or two in front of him.

"Are you okay?" Deeks asked, his arms still wrapped around her as she pulled herself up.

"Yeah, just slipped on some loose gravel, thanks." She turned to look at him, only then did she realize how close they were. Their noses only about an inch apart and his hands still on her hips.

"So, we should probably keep moving, right?" Deeks suggested releasing her and stepping back quickly as if he'd been shocked.

"Uh, yeah." Kensi agreed slightly puzzled by his behavior.

A minute or so later, they reached the top of the rocks. Kensi looked around in awe. The sun was painting the sky and sea brilliant shades of pinks, reds, yellows, and oranges. The waves were crashing below them, and they seemed to be so far from the city. Kensi turned around to look at Deeks, who was standing a few feet behind her. "This is beautiful. How did you know it was here?"

"I used to come up here a lot, Reseda's not far from here. If I wasn't surfing or running the streets with Ray, I was here." Deeks Said as he walked over to a boulder near the edge and sat up against it facing the ocean below. Kensi followed him and sat down beside him, curling her legs beside her, as she was in a dress.

They sat in silence for a minute. "So why'd you bring me here? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it doesn't seem like a place you'd bring someone to on a date."

"I thought you said this wasn't a date?" Deeks teased, turning her words on her, he knew what she meant.

"Deeks..."

"I know, you're one of two people I've ever brought here. Ray came with me once or twice, but other than that, I don't know how many others even know how to get up here, it's not easy, as you saw."

Kensi was silent for a moment before dropping her head to his shoulder, enjoying the view and the company. "Thank you. It means a lot to me that you trust me enough to bring me here." She tilted her head up to make eye contact as she said this.

"Kensi, you're my partner and my best friend, there's nobody else I trust more." Deeks said as he reached around and placed his hand on her hip. He prayed, even though he wasn't religious, that she wouldn't pull away or shut down on him now.

She stiffened beneath his touch at first, "Deeks..." She trailed off.

"What is it?" He asked as she turned slightly to look at him, but staying close enough that he didn't have to move his arm.

"I, it's just, I'm confused. We haven't talked about this" she motioned between the two of them "thing yet. I know you kissed me but I still don't know what that means for our thing and then, when you fell asleep that night, you said something that scared me."

"What did I say?" Deeks asked letting go and moving to face her fully.

"We were talking and then you started to drift off and I asked you 'what happens next?' and you told me 'it's a love story'"

"I don't remember that."

"I know, and that's why I didn't bring it up, but I think we do really need to talk about this." Kensi said and she broke eye contact, looking down at the rock they were currently sitting on and started tracing the small indentations on it with her fingers.

"Kens, I know how I feel, and I've been afraid to tell you before because I didn't want you to run away. I couldn't bear to think of losing you."

Kensi's eyes shot up to look at him for a moment before dropping again. He continued to watch her, she looked absolutely stunning in this instant, her long, tan legs curled beside her, leaning on one arm as the other touched the rock he'd come to so many times before. The sunset behind her made her look as if she was glowing and the light breeze lifted her hair out of her face slightly.

"And I think you know what I'm going to say, so if you don't want me to say it, and want things to remain how they are, just tell me, and we can pretend this conversation never happened."

Kensi looked up at him with determination in her eyes. "No, I'm done pretending. I'm done pretending our 'thing' doesn't exist. I'm done pretending that there is nothing between us, and I need to know what you actually want. I'm not going to promise I can give you the same in return, but I will try."

"And that's all I can ask from you. If we both want our thing to work out, we're going to have to try. Kens, I've known for a long time, probably since about the time we met, that I've had feelings for you that go past a friendship. I know we don't always get along, but I kind of like that. You keep me on my toes. I've never felt this way about anyone before in my entire life. I am in love with you."

Kensi had held eye contact the entire time he'd been talking, and even though she knew it was coming, she was still shocked to hear him say the words. After the initial shock wore off, she smiled brightly at him, and he returned it, knowing she wasn't going to run away.

"I can't say the words back yet, I think I may just need a little time, but I think you taught me another way of communicating those feelings." Kensi said as she scooted back towards him and leaned forward so that their noses were touching.

"Maybe we should try that communication again." Deeks said before he connected their lips, and she responded, but in a more passionate way than she had up on the ridge.

They broke apart and smiled at each other before he stood and pulled her to her feet. He stole another quick kiss before saying "How about we go down to the pier now, and I think this does classify as a date."

_**Thoughts? Should I continue? I didn't intend for the story to evolve the way it did, at all. I actually pretty much scrapped my original ideas.**_


End file.
